A modern way to accelerate your test capabilities

Many test engineers using high-speed data acquisition tools believe it is often easier to use a paper chart recorder to quickly evaluate test data rather than trying to examine the PC’s data acquisition results.

They couldn’t be more wrong. 

Many basic PC data acquisition systems are limited because the data throughput to the hard disk is precisely the same as the data output from the hard disk. This means that a 10-minute measurement made at full hard disk bandwidth requires 10 minutes to replay.

But the latest modern high-speed data acquisition products overcome this challenge.

Enter the GEN series of DAQ products from HBM Genesis HighSpeed. They have a patented feature called StatStream that solves this throughput problem. Using StatStream, several parallel, reduced data streams are produced in real-time during measurement, and saved with the raw data.

If a 10-Gigabyte data set is displayed on the screen, this display is generated from a reduced data set. All statistical parameters, such as minimum and maximum values, are saved with the data to ensure that every interference spike, even if it is only one sample wide, is always displayed. By zooming in on the data, sub-data sets of increasing size are used until the raw data sets are finally displayed at the sample level.

During acquisition, the additional StatStream information is generated without performance degradation using special digital signal processors. The additional information increases the size of the data set by only three to four per cent, but replay is up to 1,000 times faster than with conventional PC systems. An eight-Gigabyte data set, for example, is displayed in only three seconds.

Another feature is the ‘Review while Recording’ function, which allows the products to simulate the functionality of a paper-based system. This enables evaluation and analysis of acquired data during the measurement, and simulates an electronic version of the paper output.

To further improve functionality, HBM Genesis HighSpeed includes the modular Perception software that precisely matches the hardware and the application to form a true electronic chart recorder. Perception is a customized solution that enables measured data to be exported in 23 different formats, either manually for selected areas or automatically for a complete measurement series.

There are a number of alternatives to traditional paper output with the HBM Genesis HighSpeed GEN DAQ products. To learn more about them, contact Durham Instruments. 

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